Generations

Chapter 3

The Dax and the Destroyer

Author's Note:This series takes place in a parallel universe. Even in Seeds of Destiny, some eighteen and a half years earlier in the timeline, technology was clearly more advanced than what we know.

Krystal surveyed the young people sat at the table with her analytical eye. Her detective's instinct came into play and she took in the details of each of the four.

Sitting to her right were Thea and Leo, the married couple. Their wedding rings were prominent on their ring fingers. There were rubies set into them and Krystal estimated that the couple must have splashed out quite considerably for the matching pair. Thea was of petite stature with brown hair and blue eyes. She looked quite nice, made up carefully and in a stylish dress, but her husband was clearly above her league lookswise. Strikingly handsome in his tuxedo, he had hair the colour of light caramel, fine, strong features with a straight nose, a well defined jaw and clear, hazel eyes that reminded her of her Jimmy's... she felt a pang of sadness even after all these years, but letting Jimmy go had been the right thing. Let it be said that she was a cougar no more.

Two girls of about eighteen or nineteen sat on Krystal's left. Larissa was a slightly chubby girl with shoulder length, frizzy blond hair and too much eyeshadow. Emily, the girl sitting next to Larissa was the most interesting of all. She was a hybrid, just like Krystal's own son, Johann. One of Johann's many biological sisters. This girl was a marvellous specimen of hybrid womanhood, there could be no doubt about that.

Emily reminded Krystal of Dax more forcefully than Johann did. Dax had had an unnaturally perfect face - it had been genetically engineered to be that way after all. Johann had inherited some features from Krystal's father, so his face looked rougher and more real. But Emily's face was like that of the Dax, with the features softened to feminine form. She had a perfectly symmetrical nose and her cheekbones were proportioned with unnatural precision. Her lovely mouth with its full lips, would have put any Hollywood starlet to shame. Her face appeared just as an amalgam of idealised features might. Her vivid, green skin, a hue Krystal would have described as a fluorescent chartreuse-green, seemed to shine almost like some kind of latex as it caught the light of the lamp above their little table, adding to the overall effect that she was a synthetic being, something outside of nature.

Emily's gaze, when she first saw Krystal had been so reminiscent of that which the Dax had given the journalist when he first saw her. An oblique, staring expression. A haunting kind of look. Krystal was not likely to forget the Dax, even now. Then Emily had broken into a smile and they all had begun to converse normally. Emily kept shooting furtive looks at Thea with those wide, dark eyes of hers and rubbing her cheek with her elegant fingers, just the way the Dax had done when he had been nervous or lost in thought. It was clear to Krystal that the inhuman DNA in each of the hybrids had a different level of ascendancy and in Emily it was very strongly manifest.

They were sitting in the canteen at Leo's workplace. It was late in the evening and the place was deserted. They had all agreed that they needed privacy for this meeting, but it was not too formal and they had ordered pizzas for a late supper.

"These'll be mine," said Emily, unwrapping three extra large meat feast pizzas with stuffed crusts, "and the salad is yours Larissa. And Leo and Thea, a small anchovy pizza for you."

"Just the garlic bread for me," said Krystal.

"You sure you can eat all that Emily?" asked Thea, raising her eyebrows.

"Of course she can," said Leo as he gazed fondly at Emily. Very fondly, thought Krystal. Surely it didn't take her detective's instincts to guess why he looked at Emily so misty eyed and dreamy.

Emily brushed her long, green tinged hair away from her face and smiled at Thea a little nervously. The girl had perfectly proportioned, pearly white teeth as well. What an all round magnificent specimen she was! So much about her would drive a man wild with longing. Dax's biological daughters all had oversized breasts and Emily was no exception. Certainly her jacket didn't exactly conceal the size and shape of her cleavage. Was it any wonder that Leo had selected her to work with?

"My metabolism is very efficient, Thea," Emily said, her smile still looking somewhat forced. "Larissa has seem me stuff - that's how I eat several meals very quickly when I need energy to stay alert for very long shifts. Sometimes 48 hours in a row. I daresay I wouldn't get a prize for eating prettily when I do that."

"I soon got used to it," said Larissa, patting her friend on the arm.

That was a cute way of describing it, thought Krystal. That word "stuff." Undoubtedly Emily had coined the term herself. She had had to be strict with Johann about never doing it in public. Boys could be unreflecting...

"You dears," said Krystal, "I should start by telling you all about the Dax as I knew him. I hope it will be useful. And that it will be a comfort to you my dear," she said, addressing Emily who was gazing fixedly at her, her pizzas forgotten.

Krystal thought she would quickly get to the part that would interest Emily the most. It was obvious enough to Krystal that Emily viewed the genetically engineered being as a lost father figure. "My partner and I rescued him from Genutec's underground lab. They had kept him a prisoner there and harvested his sperm although he was not physically fully mature yet. Since he had been grown in a tank of nutrients and given a subliminal education, he wasn't really more than a year old, if you count his birth date as the day he was released from the tank."

Thea made a disgusted noise and Larissa linked arms with Emily, whose bottom lip was quivering and whispered something soothing to her.

Krystal continued reciting; "he first appeared to me as a mere boy. At once timid and overexcited about the wider world around him." Krystal decided to skip over the fiasco of how she had taken Dax out in public that first time. "Immediately before the Destroyer threatened the world, a girl named Lucy who I met when we were patients at the clinic gave birth and stayed in my house while recovering from the delivery. It was of course obvious that the baby was his." Emily gave a wry smile at this and touched her green cheek.

"The Dax adored his little son," Krystal told them. "Despite the strange circumstances, he was so proud to have fathered little Jamie and was always wanting to hold him. He would even remind me as though it had slipped my memory; 'I'm his father Krystal, me!'"

"How cute," said Thea.

Emily was gazing at Krystal who could see an almost unnerving intensity in her expression.

"Then the Dextror splased his broadcast onto all the networks," said Krystal. Larissa scowled and then shot a half-glance at Leo.

Krystal continued; "the evil creature had concealed himself in Genutec's underground complex, built himself a throne from the bones of Genutec's staff and flooded the lower levels with delta radiation which would have been lethal to any human. You all know how he threatened the entire world and how he gloated that he would start with Africa to give a demonstration. Well the Dax and I hatched a plan there and then that he should infiltrate the complex with a circuit jammer to switch off the main reactor. He did do just that and the Dextror caught and killed him" - Krystal hastily decided to skip over this part, as Emily covered her face with her hands - "but the Dax had started a delta-fire in the complex. The would-be Destroyer was engulfed in it. He was able to withstand it long enough to break out of the complex and run half a mile, still ablaze. He dove into the river Thames and that was the end of him as far as we know."

Krystal knew what part Emily wanted to hear most. "Emily, the Dax did mention you and his other children before he died." Emily looked up, her eyes bright with tears.

"The Dax almost broke down before setting off," said Krystal, "he cried and said that he knew he wouldn't survive and that he wanted his children to think well of him even though he could never hold or cherish them. It was at this moment that I resolved to keep our hybrid baby even though I hadn't agreed to being inseminated with Dax sperm. He took comfort from this and said that he hoped his children would think well of him."

Emily swallowed and then nodded. "Thank you, dear Krystal, thank you for sharing this," she said, her gravelly voice sounding even hoarser than usual due to her emotion. "It's such a relief. And thank you, all of you, for supporting me, you are such good friends, I don't think I deserve..." she sniffed and shook her head and Larissa patted her on the back.

"You should come and meet my son, Johann - your brother," Krystal told her.

"Right away! Or as soon as he can see me," said Emily, brightening visibly.

Krystal was suitably proud of how her son had turned out. A hybrid child just needed good guidance, like any pure human child. She knew of a case of a hybrid boy who had somehow been responsible for a tidal wave of pregnancies in his area, but his mother and authority figures were very much to blame. They had to have known that hybrids were extremely fertile and that many methods of contraception simply didn't work on them. Johann was taking no risks. On learning of this case, he had resolved to wait for s*x until he married his girlfriend and abstain until then. It was proof what a good boy he was and that she had brought him up to be responsible.

Krystal wondered whether she should have a word with Leo and Emily about what had been going on between them. Certainly Emily seemed like the sort of girl who could be reasonsed with. Leo, Emily and Thea should not have to end up on Jeremy Springett with a relationship crisis! Krystal inwardly laughed at the preposterous notion of any of them on Jerry Springett. Of course that would never ever happen. All four of the kids were really too nice for anything like that. She was already fond of them and they had only just met. The bare idea of them being humiliated by Jerry Springett made her feel queasy. She could not fathom the popularity of such a show. In her opinion, only the Weirdo Hour show was a much more degrading spectacle. Only beings who were totally mad went on the Weirdo Hour...

Several hours later, at 3 AM, the grave yard slot, the Weirdo Hour began on the TrashTalk channel.

The host, David Unctious introduced the show in his usual fawning manner. Being consigned to this slot was an imposition, but he was determined to make the best of it.

"Look, I really hope I'm not interrupting anything important you might be doing at home, but it's a special hullo from me and not an ordinary hullo like you get from other presenters," he rubbed his hands together and leered at the camera. "We've got a load of special guests lined up for you tonight. Here's Mad John."

Mad John was an ashy pale man with long, greasy black hair and pouchy cheeks, wearing dark glasses against the glaring studio lights. "Hi Dave, how's your s*x life?" he asked, giving Dave a nod.

"Sooper," said Dave, not really listening as he gestured towards the second guest, a ragged old man with a scrubby grey beard, who was clutching a liquor bottle. "Here is Mr Block. Good to have you back Mr Block."

"Erm, thanks Dave, I've got to pay the rent," said Block.

There was an awkward pause and then Dave gave a horrible, forced laugh. "S-oo-per," he said again. "And joining us for the first time ever tonight is Mr Troy, Mr Des Troy."

A hunched figure swathed in a heavy, black hooded robe was crouched in the dark corner of the studio where the lights had gone out.

"Greetingss, unctuous human being," said Des Troy in a harsh, gurgling voice. "I should introduce myself now? Human memories are fleeting, but once I was on all the networks. I will rise again."

"I myself have been starring in several multi billion sterling films," said Block with perfect gravity. Dave had to stop himself rolling his eyes. Of all the delusional guests he had ever had, Block had to be one of the most ridiculous. He decided to let the fools embarass themselves some more and give his own voice a rest.

"I had the attention of the world because I held the power of doom over you all," grated Des Troy. "I could have shown the lot of you... I was even just about to blast Africa as a demonstration for you swine on what fate was in store for you..."

"You couldn't do it, you're just a chicken Mr Troy, cheep cheep cheeeeeep!" said Mad John waving his arms.

"I will regain my old strength and then we'll see who are the chickens," snarled Des Troy. "I was actually about to grant the natives of the dark continent a great act of mercy by ending their plague ridden, war torn existences."

"I myself on the other hand, averted what could have been the first ever world war," said Block, "there you go, can't be bad."

"The rest of humanity is as deluded as you are, Block," snarled Des Troy. "Death is the only solution to the human condition - so final, so corrective. I killed my arrogant creators and did them a favour."

"Ha ha ha, what a story, Des Troy," said Mad John.

"Weird alien man or engineered lifeform or whatever you may be, you have something I want!" growled Des Troy.

"Then let's go eat, haaah?" Mad John suggested.

"Oh really? I've never eaten haaah before, why don't we go to a haaah restaurant," said Block with a sneer.

"No, there will be no need for you to come, Block," said Des Troy. "After all, at this moment I am partial to liver and yours probably has cirrhosis. Come into the alley outside after the show, Mad John and then we'll see..."